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HomeMy WebLinkAbout20.02.06 - Minutes, Emergency Services Advisory Council Emergency Services Advisory Council Washington County, Maryland Page 1 of 4 REGULAR MEETING Date: Thursday, February 6, 2020 Attending: R. David Hays, Director, Emergency Services, Ex-Officio Dale Fishack, President, WCVFRA, Ex-Officio Kingsley Poole, Chairman, Citizen-at-Large Dick Hopkins, Co-Chairman, WCVFRA Dwayne Lunsford, Citizen-at-Large Scott Buskirk, Citizen-at-Large Ron Horn, Citizen-at-Large Rick Blair, WCVFRA Gary Farrell, President, Funkstown FD, WCVFRA Joe Kroboth, Citizen-at-Large Bonnie Keltner, Administrative Assistant Guests: Jeff Cline, President, County Commissioner Randy Wagner, County Commissioner Steve Lohr, Chief, HFD Jon Hart, Asst. Dir., Fire Operations Dave Chisholm, Asst. Dir. EMS Operations, DES Sam Anderson, Operations Manager, Fire Operations, DES Jim Sprecher, Jr., Captain, Engine 2 Emily Keller, City Council Member Doug DeHaven, City of Hagerstown Fire Marshal CALL TO ORDER: • Chairman Poole called the meeting to order at 7:10 pm and introductions were made. Minutes: • Correction on the January 9, 2020 minutes: Joe Kroboth was in attendance at this meeting. His name was inadvertently left off. Bonnie added his name to the minutes. • MOTION: On a motion by Gary Farrell and seconded by Dick Hopkins, the ESAC members approved the minutes of the January 9, 2020 meeting as presented. CARRIED Washington County, Maryland Emergency Services Advisory Council Meeting Thursday, February 6, 2020 Page 2 of 4 Special Presentation – Residential Sprinklers: • Brian Geraci, Maryland State Fire Marshal, talked about sprinklers. In 2012 the legislature in the General Assembly passed a bill that would add residential sprinklers within the International Residential Code (IRC) Fire Sprinkler Coalition. Worcester County tried to do an opt out provision because of what was going on with Allegany County. Letters came down from the Attorney General’s office and the State Fire Prevention Commission. If any County is violating the law, they will be held accountable. Since 2012 and 2015, the only jurisdiction that hasn’t enforced the sprinkler law is Allegany County. A bill has been put in to provide enforcement for residential sprinklers in new one and two family dwellings. Mr. Geraci asked for a letter from the ESAC stating that the Council is in favor of the legislation and that residential sprinklers save lives and to ask the committee for a favorable report. • MOTION: On a motion by Ron Horn and seconded by Jim Sprecher, the ESAC members agreed to have three letters written in support of residential sprinklers. House Bill 823 will be presented on Feb. 25 at 1pm at the Environment and Transportation Committee. Senate Bill 746 will be heard by the Senate Committee on March 5 at 1pm at the Science and Education Health Environmental Committee. CARRIED • A short video was shown about the success of fire sprinklers in buildings. City of Hagerstown Fire Marshal Doug DeHaven spoke to the council about residential sprinklers and their applicability. Old Business: • Citizen Appointee to Emergency Service Advisory Council – Bonnie will email the list of applicants to the voting members. Please be prepared to discuss this matter at the next meeting (work session) on March 5. New Business: DES Director’s Report – Director Dave Hays • Director Hays let Chief Lohr know today that DES submitted a joint CIP project to put a compartmentalized burn building on the Bowman Avenue property. So far, it has made it through the CIP committee. • Moving through a rekey of the Knox system. We’ve been working on getting a standardized key throughout Washington County for several months. Apparently, we have in our possession more keys than Knox says we have. • EMS Audits – Director Hays received a report from the county’s CFO that all of the site visits are complete and we should see a first draft between February 14 through March 6. A final report is due to the Board of County Commissioners on March 20. Washington County, Maryland Emergency Services Advisory Council Meeting Thursday, February 6, 2020 Page 3 of 4 Jon Hart - Assistant Director, Fire Operations • There are essentially two grants under the Assistance to Fire fighter Grant Program; one is the AFG, which is for equipment and the other is the SAFER grant, which is for personnel staffing, recruitment, and retention of personnel. The AFG application period opened February 4. We are working with approximately 11 companies for a regional grant; VFC of Halfway is serving as the host for the grant. DES is not a fire department, per se, thus cannot be the host for the grant. We are submitting a regional grant to obtain self-contained breathing apparatus and the application period ends on March 13. We will be working over the next month to facilitate that process. Departments must be registered through the System for Award Management (SAM), which is a government website, in order to receive grant funding. VFC of Halfway initially said that they were registered; it turned out they had not been. However, they attempted to do some type of entity change and the process did not take. If they cannot get this straightened out, we will switch to another fire company to be the host for the grant. Sam Anderson - Operations Manager of Fire Operations • Update on Staffing: we’re getting requests of 3,200 to 3,300 hours a month from the volunteer companies to request staffing. We are only able to fill about 60% of those requests due to staffing and budget. We are in the process of hiring more part-time personnel. The Airport (Station 35) will be coming under DES, which will give us more part-time persons. WCVFRA Report – President Dale Fishack • President Fishack asked Jon Hart if he could add three more air packs for the safety officer vehicles. Jon said he would. • Trying to extrapolate data on firefighters and their status (active or not). It looks like it will be coming down to individual fire chiefs to provide updated data. LOSAP data does not give that information. Firehouse isn’t 100%, and we’ve even looked to workers comp and insurance. President Fishack will talk about this at the next Chiefs’ meeting. Discussion followed. • We were behind in getting our audit in. It is now complete and currently being reviewed. • House Bill 0810 was created to cover Tech High students that would be entering Tech High at age 15, so they can be allowed to start classes before their 16th birthday. The issue is they would not be covered by insurance. The WCVFRA covers the insurance with their workers comp standpoint. We want to mirror what the school board already has. So, we are trying to get this bill passed so these students can enter Tech High. The hearing is on March 3 at 1pm. It is a bill that would only apply to Washington County and is supported by our local delegates. Washington County, Maryland Emergency Services Advisory Council Meeting Thursday, February 6, 2020 Page 4 of 4 • MOTION: On a motion by Rick Blair and seconded by Dale Fishack, the ESAC approved that a letter be sent to Bill Wivell with a copy to Johnny Roth in support of House Bill 0810 for the Tech High students as presented. CARRIED • Chairman Poole will make sure the County Commissioners are aware of us endorsing House Bill 0810. Hagerstown Fire Department Report (HFD) – Chief Steve Lohr • Chief Lohr said there are two important dates for anyone looking at SCBA. Funkstown & Sharpsburg Fire Departments will also be participating in evaluating the packs. On Thursday, Feb. 20, Scott Factory reps and dealers will be at the training center for demos. On Tuesday, Feb. 25, MSA will be doing the same thing. Remarks for the Good of the Council • Ron Horn asked President Fishack about two bills that were mentioned at Smithsburg’s meeting. One was about how applications are done for joining a volunteer company. The other that passed wasn’t a bill but was an employment law application change. President Fishack will ask Recruitment and Retention Coordinator Chandler Fishack to reach out to other recruitment and retention coordinators across the state and come back to the ESAC with more information. Adjournment • MOTION: With no other business brought forward, a motion was made by Dick Hopkins and seconded by Dwayne Lunsford to adjourn the meeting at 8:55pm. CARRIED. Next regular meeting: • April 2, 2020 • Location: Water Quality Front Meeting Room 16232 Elliott Parkway Williamsport, MD 21795 Respectfully submitted by, Bonnie Keltner, Administrative Assistant Washington County Div. of Emergency Services, Kingsley Poole, ESAC Chairman, & Richard Hopkins, ESAC Co-Chair